“Cometh the Storm” – High on Fire

Album: Cometh the Storm

Artist: High on Fire

Year: 2024

Genre: Stoner Metal, Sludge Metal

Grade: A-

Although somewhat under the radar as far as mainstream music circles go, California stoner metal trio High on Fire has been one of the most consistent bands over the last couple decades. Their ninth studio album, Cometh the Storm, replaces founding drummer Des Kensel with Coady Willis (who most recently was in the Melvins), yet the band loses none of its relentless power.

Every song is heavy and punishing — a headbanger’s paradise. Atypical of stoner metal, the tempo never lets up, and Cometh the Storm maintains its energetic pace from opening second to closing. Likewise, Willis fits right in with the rest of the band as if he’s been all the time. His technically accomplished drumming propels the music with pounding rhythms and crashing cymbals, while frontman Matt Pike roars above the cacophony with a voice like Motörhead’s Lemmy Kilmister and blistering guitar solos like Judas Priest’s Glenn Tipton.

Best played at high volume, Cometh the Storm is quite possibly High on Fire’s most aggressive album, another jewel in a discography that continues to get better and better. It”s right up there with their best material, ranking alongside Death Is This Communion (2007) or De Vermis Mysteriis (2012), a fantastic listen that builds the band’s legacy. And as far as sludge/stoner metal legacies go, High on Fire deserves to be ranked alongside the likes of Mastodon as one of the best bands since the turn of the century.

NOTES & CHORDS

• The 10-minute finale “Darker Fleece” is the album’s pièce de résistance: a slow, trudging, bleak funeral march that recalls the epic dirges of Sleep, Pike’s former band.

• “Karanlık Yol” is our obligatory High on Fire Turkish folk-dance instrumental. It’s a necessary break from the rest of the album’s heaviness, while still retaining the band’s trademark grooviness.

• As the album goes on, Pike’s vocals become hoarser and, as a result, more earnest. The penultimate song, “Hunting Shadows,” is the closest thing you’ll get to a melodic croon in all of sludge metal. By the time we reach “Darker Fleece,” he’s basically growling.

• Kurt Ballou of Converge helped to produce Cometh the Storm, another ringing endorsement for High on Fire’s legacy.

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